You must admit, those brass engines host a lot of detail. I bought one to see what all the ballyhoo was about them. My first curiosity was to compare its performance against those die cast clunkers. Second, is the detail applied neatly? Third, Is it worth the extra money over reworking one of my clunkers?

The answer is yes. What disappointed me was it makes the sound of and electric train and not a steam engine. Even with sound injected into the atmosphere, you hear the mechanical noise that would be ok if it were a diesel. Accept the fact it’s a good toy and enjoy it.

The fact that it’s brass, I’ll use it for a “favorite train” and pull the “company special” with first class varnish and a couple private cars if it whims me.

There isn’t any electric charge in any of my materials but some are slightly ferrous. running a magnet over it is the worst thing you can do as your now magnetizing it. Thousands of bags have been installed on layouts around the world without any problem and now you causing alarm.